Against payment of a certain sum of money and profit-sharing, the U.S. American company Merck has been granted a temporary right to perform pharmacological analysis of genetic resources in Costa Rica, as well as the right to patent the developed drugs. In exchange, it had to provide the INBio laboratory with scientific equipment. A major part of the money was invested in the conservation of Costa Rican national parks, so that, in this case, the utilisation of biological diversity eventually contributes to its conservation. Online version